“If risk is mispriced everywhere, then it is not mispriced. That is its price”
One high yield expert sounds like he is trying to convince himself as much as his clients
“China Construction Bank? Do they do carpentry? I could hang some doors for them”
A guest at Euromoney’s box at the Singapore Formula 1 underestimates the scale of China’s second-largest lender
“I love Italy and I love the Italians. Only they could produce a budget with a deficit so big it raises doubts about long-term debt sustainability and the viability of Italian banks chock full of Italian government bonds and call it a stability programme”
This French economist celebrates EU solidarity
“My CEO will call me and ask: ‘Why did we do better or worse than them?’ And my answer will be: ‘Here’s what our business is and here’s what theirs is, it’s not an apples to apples comparison’”
An investment banker at a US regional bank describes the quarterly challenge of explaining his business to his senior management
“We have four different regulators in the building all the time”
One US banker wishes that regulators would work in a more co-ordinated fashion
“Foreign banks only have execution capabilities. All our staff used to work in foreign banks and they’ve got that capability already. The difference is, we still use our balance sheet”
A mainland-owned Hong Kong securities banker tells it like it is